Manipur Chief Minister inaugurates the tele ICU hub at JNIMS hospital in Imphal
Bengaluru, Imphal, NFAPost: Bengaluru based, eGovernments Foundation today launched the 10BedICU program with Manipur Government to provide ICU wards at district hospitals at 15 districts in the state. 10BedICU, a PPP (private-public-partnership) project between state government and a group of NGOs, provides state-of-the-art ICU medical equipment, Pandemic/ICU management cloud software platform as well as a cutting-edge Tele ICU module.
The ambitious project was inaugurated by Manipur Chief Minister Shri N Biren Singh in Imphal.
Delivering his inaugural speech, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh said the 10BedICU wards in every district hospital along with the TeleICU hub at JNIMS will help the people in far-flung rural and hill districts to avail of critical care facilities.
“There are several cases of people losing their lives while being transported to urban hospitals for critical care, with TeleICU hub such cases can be avoided and save thousands of lives. In the initial phase of the project, I had certain doubt. But after seeing the facility I am very confident in the success of the project,” said Manipur Chief Minister Shri Biren Singh.
Commenting on the 10BedICU initiative, Khosla Ventures Founder Partner Vinod Khosla said there is a need for cutting edge technology and network access to improve healthcare in rural India.
“10BedICU’s vision of connecting the urban centres, which have better facilities and specialists, to rural/taluka hospitals using technology is a practical way to deliver critical care to rural India,” said Khosla Ventures Founder Partner Vinod Khosla.
Infosys Cofounder Nandan Nilekani who addressed the event said 10BedICU is an example of DigitalIndia services like Aadhaar and UPI, where technology is being used for social good in India.
“Well designed system like 10BedICU can scale to every district of the country, and TeleICU hubs can help the patients at rural hospitals through the technology backbone,” said Infosys Cofounder Nandan Nilekani.
Srikanth Nadhamumi, the founder CTO of the Aadhaar project and Chairman of 10BedICU, said this transformational project was conceived during Covid wave-2 spread during which time he got frantic calls for help from various quarters.
“Our aim is to create ICU wards in every district of the country, and us cutting edge technology to ensure specialist doctor care for rural/taluka hospital patients from medical colleges using our TeleICU backbone. We have also open sourced the CARE technology platform, which has been recognized by the United Nation as a Digital Public Good,” said Srikanth Nadhamumi.
In Manipur, the Tele ICU Hub has been created at JNIMS in Imphal, consisting of large 4k TV monitors using which specialst doctors will monitor their distant patients, and it will connect with all the 16 district hospitals over broadband internet.
Remote hospitals where state-of-the-art ICU medical (including AI Ventilators) has been provided, high-definition ceiling cameras are used for patient monitoring and interaction with specialist at the JNIMS hub. This entire platform runs on world-class CARE cloud software solution built to manage ICU & Pandemic needs.
10BedICU.org is currently working in 8 states of Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Nagaland, has deployed over 200 10BedICU wards (2000 ICU beds).
Sudarshan founder Karuna Trust, a key NGO partner of 10BedICU, pointed out that the people in rural areas were disproportionately affected due to poor ICU capacity.
“We also needed to move fast, so we partnered with State govts, NGOs and generous donors including Vinod Khosla, the renowned entrepreneur and billionaire venture capitalist from the Silicon Valley, who provided funds to support 100 hospitals. Several others including Crypto Relief, Give India and HDFC Bank supported 10BedICU with funding,” said Srikanth Nadhamuni the chairman of 10BedICU.
About 10BedICU.org
10BedICU is a partnership of 2 NGOs eGovernments Foundation and Karuna Trust. Currently we are deploying ICUs in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Karnataka, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Nagaland.
Critical Problems Addressed by 10BedICU
1. Absence of government run ICUs or HDUs (High Dependency Units) with much-needed equipment like 5-para monitors, ventilators, defibrillators, etc. that are standard in private urban hospitals.
2. Acute shortage of specialist staff in government hospitals in rural areas since most specialist doctors and nurses prefer an urban posting.
3. Even if the staff is present, training doctors and nurses in govt. Hospitals in critical care ICU protocol and equipment is a huge challenge.
The 10BedICU Solution rests on 5 key pillars
1. High quality Medical Equipment
2. TeleICU
3. CARE pandemic/ICU Mgmt Software Platform
4. Training of Doctors and Nurses
5. Community Participation for Accountability
Website:10BedICU.org
